1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a back brace for supporting the back of a person and more particularly to a back brace having pull cords for size adjustment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A regular back brace is generally formed of a soft elastic belt for wearing around the waist or abdomen of a person and a tape of hook member and a tape of loop member of a hook and loop fastener respectively provided at two opposite sides of the soft elastic belt for securing the soft elastic belt to the body of a person. When the user wants to adjust the tightness of the soft elastic belt subject to the desired tension, the user must separate the tape of hook member and the tape of loop member, and then pull the soft elastic belt to the desired tightness, and then fasten the tape of hook member and the tape of loop member together. Directly pulling the soft elastic belt to the desired tightness requires much effort. This adjustment operation is somewhat difficult to an old person, woman or patient who does not have great strength.
To eliminate the aforesaid effort adjustment problem, back braces with electronic tension control means are developed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,346.461 discloses a similar design entitled “Electromechanical Back Brace Apparatus”. According to this patent, the back brace apparatus has electromechanical means for tightening a brace around the trunk of a patient to a desired tension. The electromechanical means is controllable by the patient to effect predetermined tension settings. Further, a cable and pulley arrangement tightened by a motor provides a mechanical advantage so that the brace may be tightened by a small motor. A microprocessor controls the motor to obtain the desired repeatable tension settings. This design allows the user to adjust the back brace subject to the desired tension conveniently without much effort. However, the electromechanical means uses expensive electronic component parts, and has a complicated structure. Because of high sale price, this design of back brace apparatus cannot be popularly accepted.